MINISTER FOR Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has called on the dissident group behind the car-bombing of a police station in south Armagh to call off its campaign of violence.
Two people were injured in the bombing of Newtownhamilton PSNI station just before midnight on Thursday. It was the second time in a week that the station, which was not staffed at the time, had been targeted.
The bombers fired shots into the air as they left the car bomb in place. It exploded as emergency crews were on their way to the scene, injuring a woman in her 80s and inflicting minor shrapnel wounds on a man. Both were said to be shaken.
The PSNI station was damaged along with businesses and homes in the vicinity.
Mr Martin said the bombing was “a criminal act” which could not be justified or excused.
The bombers were “wrong and misguided”, he said. “The only viable road to unity on this island lies through peace, tolerance, persuasion and agreement.
“In the name of the Republic, I call on those who commit these acts to stop,” he said.
There was also strong condemnation from the North’s First Minister Peter Robinson, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and the new Minister for Justice, David Ford.
Statements of condemnation were also issued by the parties represented in the Assembly and by the chairman of the Policing Board. The attack follows similar bombings at the headquarters of MI5 in Holywood, near Belfast, and at Newry courthouse within the past two months.
Newtownhamilton residents have criticised the police response and pointed to last week’s attempted bombing in the town, which was thwarted by a British army bomb disposal team.
The PSNI believes the threat of violence by dissidents is at its highest point since the Omagh bombing in 1998.
Local police commander Chief Insp Sam Cordner said his officers had to respond with caution to such events. “This was an attack designed to murder police officers, and our response needs to be thought through and measured,” he said.
However, local Presbyterian Minister Kerr Graham publicly questioned policing measures in the area. “The fact that dissidents can return to this village in just over a week to plant a second bomb says it all really,” he told the BBC.